Delivery door operating mechanism



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[45] Patented Dec. 22, 1970 Primary Examiner-Stanley l-l. Tollberg [73] Assignee Rowe International, Inc. Angmgy-Shenier and OConnor Whippany, NJ. a corporation of Delaware ABSTRACT: A door operating mechanism for a beverage DELIVERY O OPERATING MECHANISM merchandising machine in which a motor driven cam normally 9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

disables springs which urge a sliding door to an open position over a recess formed in the front of the machine cabinet to permit the door to close under the influence of gravity. The arrangement permits the door to be opened manually when the cam is in spring disabling position and also permits the door to be held closed when the cam rotates to free the springs, both without damage to the parts.

PATEN-TED UEB22 19m SHEET 2 OF 3 INVENTOR WILL/HM ROSENH/ML/V BY ATTORNEY S nnuvsnv noon OPERATING MECHANISM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION My invention relates to an operating mechanism for automatically opening an access door in the front of a beverage merchandising machine.

Beverage merchandising machines of the prior art deliver a cup to a tray located in a recess in the front of the machines cabinet. After the beverage has been delivered to the cup, it is ready for removal by the customer. Most of the beverage machines of the prior art are provided with transparent sliding doors which normally close the recess and which must be raised and held up by the customer while he removes the filled cup. While such doors are desirable for preventing entry of foreign bodies into the recess, they require an extra operation on the part of a customer. Moreover, this operation necessitates the use of both hands and it is one which may distract the customers attention to such an extent that he spills the beverage. The desirability of a mechanism for automatically opening the door of a beverage machine access opening is evident. I have discovered, however, that this operating mechanism must not only permit the door to be opened manually without damage to the parts of the mechanism when no delivery operation is taking place, but also it must permit the door to be held closed against the action of the opening mechanism without damage to the parts. These characteristics are desirable, first for the reason that access to the recess may be necessary for cleaning or the like when no dispensing operation is taking place. Secondly, if the door jams, or if a customer holds the door closed when the operating mechanism is energized, damage to the parts should not result.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One object of my invention is to provide an operating mechanism for automatically opening the delivery door of the access opening of a merchandising machine cabinet.

Another object of my invention is to provide a delivery door operating mechanism which permits the door to be opened without damage to the parts when the operating mechanism is not energized. I

A further objectof my invention is to provide a delivery door operating mechanism which permits the door to be held closed against the action of the operating mechanism without damage to the parts.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a delivery door operating mechanism in which the danger of damage of the parts thereof is minimized.

Other and further objects of my invention will appear in the following description. v

In general my invention contemplates the provision of a delivery door operating mechanism in which a door mounted for vertical sliding movement at the front of a cabinet recess rests under the influence of gravity on elements which are spring loaded in a direction to move the door to an open position. Releasable means act on the elements to move them against the action of springs to positions at which the door closes. The releasable means is actuated in response to a dispensing operation first to permit the doors to be opened by the spring and then to move the supporting elements to positions at which the door closes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of a portion of the mechanism shown in FIG. 3 taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a portion of one form of electrical control circuit which may be employed with my door operating mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, I may apply my door operating mechanism to a beverage merchandising machine indicated generally by the reference character 10, including a cabinet 12, having a center panel 14 provided with a coin slot 16 and with a plurality of selecting buttons 18. As is known in the art, deposit of a sum in coins in the slot 16 aggregating the purchase price of a beverage and the subsequent actuation of a pushbutton l8, initiates a dispensing cycle of the machine.

In operation of a machine of the type shown, when the dispensing cycle begins, a cup 20 is delivered to a tray 22 in the bottom of a recess 24 formed in the front of the machine. A frame 23, usually supported on the door of the machine 10, carries a pair of spaced vertically extending guides 26 and 28 forming vertical slots 30 and 32 which receive the edges of a door 34 formed of a suitable transparent material such, for example, as polystyrene plastic. One of the panels 36 in the recess normally covers the upper edge of the door 34. From the structure thus far described, it will be appreciated that the guides 26 and 28 support the door 34 for vertical sliding movement from a position at which it prevents access to the cup 20 to a position at which it permits the customer to withdraw the cup.

The lower edge of the door 34 rests on bearing portions 38 of respective rods 40 and 42 having offsets 44 engaged in openings 46 in the ends of respective arms 48 and 50 of a shaft 52 rotatably supported on a bracket 54 secured by any suitable means to the front of the merchandising machine. I form shaft 52 with central crank arm portion 56.

Any suitable means such as bolts 58 or the like mount a motor 60 on a bracket 62 spaced from the bracket 54. Motor 60 has a shaft 64 on which I mount a cam 66 for rotation therewith. It will be seen that the cam 66 overlies the crank arm portion 56 of shaft 52.

I connect respective tension springs 68 and 70 between the rods 40 and 42 and notches 72 in the tops of the respective guides 26 and 28. Springs 68 and 70 act on the rods 40 and 42 to urge arms 48 and 50 and shaft 52 in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 3 to bring the crank portion 56 of the shaft into engagement with the periphery of cam 66. At the same time, the springs 68 and 70 urge rods 40 and 42 upwardly so as to tend to move door 34 to a rest position at space behind the door.

I so shape cam 66 as to provide a high point 76 which nor mally rests on the crank portion 56 of shaft 52 to hold rods 40 and 42 in the position shown in FIG. 3 at which the door 34 moves under the influence of gravity to a closed position. As

the cam 66 moves from the position shown in FIG. 4 in the direction of the arrow A, springs 68 and 70 raise the door until the crank portion 56 engages a flat 78 formed in the cam in which position the door is open. Further rotation of the cam from the flat 78 toward the high point 76 moves arms 48 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 3 to extend springs 68 and 70 to permit the door to close.

Cam 66 carries a pin 80 which normally engages an actuating arm 82 to hold a normally closed switch 84 open in the rest position of the cam. As will be described hereinafter, when motor 60 is energized, pin 80 moves away from the actuator and permits switch 84 to close until the pin again engages the actuator 82. In this manner, a one revolution holding circuit is provided for the motor.

I provide my door operating mechanism with means for energizing motor 60 in response to a dispensing operation of the machine. Referring now to FIG. 5, I have shown a schematic view of a portion of a typical electrical control circuit which may be employed in a machine such as machine 10. In that circuit, when sufficient coins to aggregate the purchase price of a desired item have been deposited in the slot 16, a coin switch arm CS connected to one of the lines L2 of the power source of the system, moves away from a normally engaged contact CS2 and into engagement with a contact CS1 to energize a vend relay winding through a normally closed switch lCl connected between relay V and the other line Ll of the system. Energization of the-vend relay winding V in this manner'closes a normally open switch V2 to provide a holding circuit for winding V by bypassing CS1. At the same time, a normally open switch V1 closes to complete a circuit from line L1 to a selecting pushbutton PB. While I have shown only a single pushbuttonswitch PB., it will be understood that as many such switches are provided as there are varieties to be dispensed by the machine 10. Since such a plurality of switches and their interconnections are known in the art, they will not be described in detail. 1

After themomentary engagement of CS1 by arm CS, it returns to CS2. With the vend relay winding V energized, act tration of pushbutton PB energizes a select relay winding R through V! and through CS2 and CS/When winding R is thus "energized, it closes a switch R1 to provide an electrical impulse from line Ll through V1 and R1 to a timer motor TM.

Timer motor TM is thus energized to drive a followthrough cam 1C to open a normally closed switch 1C1 to deenergize the vend relay winding V and to close a normally open switch 1C2 to provide a one revolution holding a circuit for motor TM.

When the machine is provided with my door operating mechanism, I arrange a circuit of HO. 5 to supply a pulse to the operating motor 60 at the end of a dispensing cycle. Motor TM drives a second cam 2C which, just before the end of a revolution of the shaft of motor TM, closes a normally open switch 2C1 to supply a pulse to motor 60 from line L1. When that occurs the motor 60 is energized and cam 66 rotates to move pin 80 to a position at which switch 84 closes to providea one revolution holding circuit for motor 60.

In use of my delivery door operating'mechanism when no dispensing operation is taking place, the door 34 may be raised at any time merely by lifting it against the force of gravi-. ty. it will readily be appreciated that this is accomplished without damage to any of the operating parts of the machine. When a dispensing operation is to take place, as when a sum in coins aggregating the purchase price of a beverage has been deposited in the coin slot 16 to cause switch arm CS to engage CS1 to energize winding V and a selecting button such as P8 is actuated to energize winding R to close contact R1 the timing motor TM is momentarily energized. It drives cam 1C to open switch 1C1 to deenergize winding V and to close switch 1C2 to hold the circuit of motor TM for one revolution. As the timing motor approaches the end of a revolution, cam 2C closes switch 2C1 momentarily to pulse the door drive motor 60. This motor begins to drive shaft 64 in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 4. As that is done, normally closed switch 84 isl permitted to close to hold the circuit of motor 60 until pin 89 again strikes arm 82 to open the switch to disable the motor". I

As cam 66 rotates in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 4, flat 78 moves to 'a position adjacent the shaft crank arm porti6n 56. In that position of the cam, springs 68 and 70 are perrr'ritted to rotate the arms 48 and 50 in a clockwise direction as viewed FIG. 3, and at the same time to raise door 34 to its open position at which cup 20 is accessible to the customer. After the cup has been removed and upon continued rotation of cam 66, high point 76 moves to a position adjacent crank arm 56 and the arms 48 and 50 are moved in a -counterclockwise direction back to their initial positions. As this takes place, door 34 moves downwardly under the influence of gravity to its closed position.

1f in the course of movement of the cam 66 just described, the customer holds door 34 closed, springs 68 and 70 cannot act and the flat 78 of cam 66 merely moves idly by the crank arm 56. Thus, damage to the operating parts is avoided. Moreover, if the customer does not withdraw the cup before the door closes, he may easily lift it and remove the cup. 7

It will be seen thatl have accomplished the objects of my invention. l have provided automatic means for opening a merchandising machine delivery door in response to a dispensing operation. laccomplished' this result while permitting the door to be opened when the operating mechanism is inactive without damage to any of the parts thereof. In addition, the door may be held closed while the. opening mechanism is active, again without damage :to the operating parts. My mechanism iss'implein its construction and in its operation for the results achieved thereby.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may-be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of my claims. it is further obvious that various changes may be made in details'within the scope of my claims without departing from the spirit of 'my invention. It is, therefore, to be understood that my invention is not to be limited to the specific details shown and described.

lclaim:

l. A door opening mechanism for a vending machine having a'cabinet provided with aspace to which an article is delivered including in combination, a door, means mounting said door on said machine adjacent said space for movement between a closed position at which said space is inaccessible to a user and an open position at which said space is accessible, means biasing said door toward open position, releasable means for preventing the operation of said biasing means and means responsive to a dispensing operation of said machine for freeing said releasable means.

2. A door opening mechanism as in claim 1 in which said freeing means comprises means for resetting said releasable means.

3. A door opening mechanism as in claim 1 in'which said;

door mounting means comprise vertically extending guides.

4. A door opening mechanism as in claim 1 in which said biasing means comprises a spring, said spring being normally relatively relaxedin the open position of said door, said.

releasable means comprising means for holding'said spring in a stressed condition.

5. A door opening mechanism as in claim 1 in which said releasable means comprises a cam having a high portion and a 1 low portion, an operative connection between said cam and said biasing means and means for driving said cam to cause.

said high portion to act on driving connection to disable the action of said biasing means and to permit said low portion to free the biasing means to close the door. A

6. A door operating mechanism as in claim 1 in which door mountingmeans, positions said door for vertical sliding movement, said biasing means comprising an elem'enton which said 1 door rests under the influence of gravity and a spring extending between said element and said cabinet for biasing said door to said open position, said releasable means comprising means acting on said element normally to position the element to stress said spring to permit said door to close under the influence of gravity.

7. A door operating mechanism as in claiml in which said door mounting means positions said door for vertical sliding position and a second position at which said spring moves said. door to open position. I

8. A door operating mechanism as in claim 1 in which said door mounting means positions said door for vertical sliding movement, said biasing means comprising a rod on which said door rests under the influence of gravity, and .a tension spring extending between said rod and said cabinet, said releasable means comprising a shaft having an arm and a crank, means-. 1.

mounting said shaft on said cabinet, means connecting said arm to said rod, a cam having a high portion and a low portion, means mounting said cam for rotary movement on said cabinet adjacent said crank, said spring urging said crank into engagement with said cam and means for driving said cam from a rest position at which said crank engages said high portion to disable the action of said spring to a position at which said crank engages the low portion of the cam to permit said spring to open the door.

9. A door opening mechanism for a merchandising machine having a cabinet provided with a space to which merchandise is delivered including in combination, a door, guide means for mounting said door on said cabinet for vertical sliding movement, a shaft having first and second arms and a crank, a cam having a high portion and a low portion, means mounting said cam on said cabinet for rotary movement adjacent said crank, a pair of generally vertically extending rods connected respectively to said first and second arms, means on said rods for receiving the lower edge of said door, respective tension springs extending between said rods and said cabinet to bias said crank into engagement with said cam and to urge said door toward open position and means for driving said cam. 

